All Rise...

Editor's Note

The Charge

For Harry and Lloyd every day is a no-brainer.

Opening Statement

If you had a bad day, then this is the disc for you! Only the most serious
sourpuss will be able to resist the cheerfully goofy charms of Dumb and
Dumber, which has been made into another nice DVD from the folks at New
Line.

The Evidence

Okay, I admit it. This has to rank among one of my more guilty
pleasures—it's silly, goofy, moronic, and a delightful change of pace. It
is so full-bore silly that it succeeds, without the distracting self-importance
or cumbersome social messages that would have wrecked it. Hollywood would do
well to keep this in mind, namely that the goal of a comedy is to be funny, and
that all else is secondary.

While I have at various times decried the recent trend in gross-out comedy,
and perhaps Dumb and Dumber helped build the trend, I think it dances up
to the line but not over. Yes, of course, there is a great helping of potty
humor (most notably with a scene involving Jeff Daniels, his range of facial
expression, and a heaping serving of "TurboLax"), but it does not
shove the bodily functions in your face and exalt shock at the expense of humor.
This is a point Mike Myers followed in Austin Powers: International Man of
Mystery but promptly forgot when he wrote Austin Powers 2: The Spy Who
Shagged Me.

The story is not the strongest point of the movie, but it is sufficient to
keep us moving from laugh to laugh. It's mostly an extended excuse to give Jim
Carrey and Jeff Daniels repeated opportunities to be outrageously silly and
stupid while their cohorts play it so very straight around them. That is where
the strength of the acting is seen, where the lead actors are so off-the-wall
but without smirking self-awareness while the rest of the cast (most notably
Lauren Holly) react as normal people might to this pair of dorks I can only
imagine how hard it was to play a scene with either Carrey or Daniels (or both!)
with a straight face.

Now, speaking of the story…Lloyd Christmas (Jim Carrey) and Harry
Dunne (Jeff Daniels) are quite possibly the dimmest bulbs on the planet, but
somehow they manage to survive. On one fateful day in Providence, R.I., Harry is
fired from his dog grooming job and Lloyd from his job as a chauffeur after
spectacularly stupid mishaps. All is not bad, because Lloyd met the girl of his
dreams, Mary Swanson (Lauren Holly), driving her to the airport. He is so
smitten with her that he rescues a briefcase she drops in the airport concourse,
but he finds only the hard concrete of the tarmac when he tries to give it back
to her—the plane already left!

Returning home, Lloyd and Harry share their sorrows over some cheap beer,
but bail out the window when vaguely menacing characters, Joe Mentalino (Mike
Starr) and J.P. Shay (Karen Duffy) pay a visit. Turns out that they were at the
airport to collect the briefcase, which contains ransom money for Mary Swanson's
husband who was secretly kidnapped by her family friend Nicholas Andre (Charles
Rocket). None of this is yet known to our dense duo, but with little to hold
them to Providence, Lloyd convinces Harry to drive them to the land of
opportunity in Aspen, where he can return the briefcase to Mary and the two of
them can start fresh. Needless to say, Joe and J.P. are in close pursuit.

Of course, the trip out west is not a simple affair. Hazards abound in the
form of an ill-tempered hick named Sea Bass (Cam Neely), a police officer
(Harland Williams) who discovers that those beer bottles in Harry's truck DON'T
contain beer, and Lloyd falling asleep at the wheel (which does lead to a
hilarious dream sequence!). The most danger comes in the form of Joe, who has
decided that Harry and Lloyd can be safely eliminated. True to form, the dense
duo escapes harm with a cunning combination of childish pranksterism, dumb luck,
and a few atomic peppers. This draws the attention of the police, who also now
are on their trail in the form of Detective Dale (Felton Perry, last seen as
Johnson in Robocop).

At a brief late night gas stop, Lloyd narrowly escapes the Return of the
ill-tempered Sea Bass and Harry is himself smitten with the charms of Beth
Jordan (Victoria Rowell), who is herself moving to Aspen. After a navigational
detour by way of Nebraska, they finally arrive in Aspen frozen and fatigued, but
happy. Until, that is, Lloyd admits he can't remember who the girl was, or where
she was going in Aspen. With nowhere to go, and no money for a motel room, our
intrepid idiots fight with each other out of pure frustration. In the middle of
their wrestling match, the briefcase is damaged, revealing its
contents—bundles upon bundles of cash!

Suddenly flush, Harry and Lloyd check into Aspen's finest digs and outfit
themselves in style (to the tune of Roy Orbison's "Pretty Woman"),
thoughtfully replacing the cash with IOUs. A little more dumb luck leads them to
a gala environmental benefit that Mary Swanson is attending. Faced with his love
once again, Lloyd gets an attack of the 'shys' and asks Harry to approach her in
his place. Much to his surprise, Harry finds himself spending a full day of
activity with Mary (and causing only some minor mishaps), thus leaving Lloyd
alone and abandoned. Lloyd gets his revenge in vicious fashion, setting the
stage for an exhibition of extreme potty humor starring Harry Dunne. Having thus
incapacitated Harry, Lloyd meets with Mary alone and tells her he's brought the
briefcase to Aspen. When they get back to the hotel, Mary gets a double shock
when she finds a briefcase filled with IOUs and her family friend Nicholas Andre
armed and with mayhem on his mind.

Harry stumbles into the middle of the confrontation, where Nicholas is
homicidally peeved that his ransom-filled briefcase suddenly is money free. Just
in the nick of time, the cops charge in and save the day, with a little help
from "Dead-Eye" Harry. Their task in Aspen complete, our half-wit
heroes return to the road, wandering off into the distance on a quest for their
destiny. Fini.

The anamorphic video is quite excellent, as we have come to expect from New
Line. I don't believe that I have yet seen a substandard transfer from a New
Line film, and hope that they keep this winning streak going! The picture is
crisp and clean, with well saturated colors and no shimmering or ringing from
digital enhancement. Flesh tones seem just a tad off (but not to any distracting
degree) and the picture is generally free of dirt or defects. There is some
degree of video noise, but it is minor and only noticeable in a handful of
scenes.

The audio is a good but not exceptional mix, as you might expect from a
comedy. Dialogue is clearly understood and decent use is made of channel
effects, with clear separation. A couple times I did find myself thinking how
well placed some of the simple effects were (i.e. knocking on a door). Your
subwoofer will provide some minor anchoring to the sound, but with no big
gunfights or explosions, it will scarcely be heard. I must commend the score and
soundtrack to your attention, as this movie has a catchy, eclectic mix of modern
songs that got me dancing in my seat several times.

The Rebuttal Witnesses

The only area where this disc comes up short is in the extras department,
which is a bit of a surprise for a New Line DVD. I don't think this fault should
be judged too harshly, as this was released over two years ago and since then
New Line has put out discs with impressive extra content (i.e. Blade and Austin Powers: International Man of
Mystery). You get two properly formatted, good quality trailers: the
original theatrical trailer and the international trailer (in 5.1 sound, no
less!). Throw in some brief filmographies for the cast and a bland photo
gallery, and that's it, all packaged in the collector-unfriendly snapper
case.

Closing Statement

Check your brain at the door and have a hilariously goofy evening. This is a
must rental, and (for only $25) I highly recommend Dumb and Dumber for
purchase as well!

The Verdict

As soon as the Court stops laughing, the film is speedily acquitted. New Line
is granted entry into the Court's Diversion program, and will have its record
sealed as long as they keep up their most excellent work packing their discs
with extras.